GY220      One Unit
Environment: Science and Society

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

An analysis of the debates concerning the nature, causes and effects of, and the alternative solutions to, the key natural environmental degradation and pollution problems faced by human societies. The purpose of this course is to provide essential information, first, about the scientific foundations for much environmental concern and, secondly, a social-science perspective on that science, identifying how it is communicated and employed in areas of environmental governance. The course provides both a grounded discussion of physical changes underlying some key environmental debates, and an introduction to approaches from social science concerning the governance implications of environmental science. Students will explore the role of science in environmental understanding and governance through a combination of lectures, classes, and practical environmental monitoring.

The course consists of two major sections, although the specific content, order and relative proportion of teaching may change with staff availability:

Part A: Environmental Science, Risk, and Policy [10 weeks]:
This section includes an introduction to positivist and post-positivist approaches to knowledge production and examines the physical science basis of current regional and global environmental risks, including geohazards, ozone depletion, climate change, deforestation, and global atmospheric pollution. We discuss different knowledge production pathways, including the positivist scientific approach, indigenous/traditional knowledge, citizen science, and 'divergent' knowledge. This section of the course involves a student-led air pollution monitoring activity, contributing to a citizen science database.

Part B: Science and Environmental Governance [9 weeks]:
This section introduces students to the social scientific perspectives on scientific knowledge and environmentalism, and how that knowledge is used to govern environmental issues. This includes how environmental science and knowledge is incorporated in global environmental governance. The environmental governance of climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and agrarian risk are covered in this section.

In the Department of Geography and Environment, teaching will be delivered through a combination of classes/seminars, in-person lectures and other supplementary activities.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures across Autumn and Winter Term.

This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term and Week 6 of Winter Term.

Students will be expected to produce 2 pieces of coursework in the AT and WT.

One essay/report in AT, one mock exam essay in WT

No one book or small group of books adequately covers the themes considered in the course, and separate reading lists are provided for each distinct part of the syllabus. Basic reading material includes:

• T. Forsyth, Critical Political Ecology; The Politics of Environmental Science, 2003;
• A. Goudie (Ed), The Human Impact Reader, 6th edition, 2006;
• M. K. Hill, Understanding Environmental Pollution, 1997;
• J. Houghton, Global Warming: The Complete Briefing, 5th edition, 2015;
• M. Hulme, Why We Disagree About Climate Change, 2009;
• A.M. Mannion, Dynamic World: Land Cover and Land-Use Change, 2002;
• G. T. Miller (Ed), Living in the Environment, 2000;
• K. Smith, Environmental Hazards, 2001;
• United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP Yearbook 2015, 2015;
• M. Whitehead, Environmental Transformations, 2014.

Exam (60%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period

Essay (40%)

Students may choose their assignment as either an environmental monitoring report (3000 words) or a summative essay (3000 words).